Integrally, Extrusion Blow Molded Container, Label and RFID Tag

ABSTRACT

An improved method for molding a plastic container within a mold including an RFID tag to generate a container which leaves a mold having an RFID tag bonded between the container and a label. This method provides for an improved integrally, extrusion blow molded container, label and RFID tag combination.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.15/710,996, filed on Sep. 21, 2017, which is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention generally relates to an extrusion-blow-molded plasticcontainer which is having an RFID tag attached to a label prior tomolding and then attached to the container between the mold cavity andoutside surface of the container during the molding process. Morespecifically, this invention relates to a container formed from a heatedextrusion which is blow-molded after a label having an RFID tag attachedthereto is placed in the mold thereby securing the RFID tag between thesurface of the container and the inside surface of the label with Heatactivated adhesive.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The merchants of plastic containers such as beverage bottles and foodtrays are demanding container identifications which are electronicallyrecognizable for purposes of improving commercial transactions involvingsuch containers. At present, one of the primary such identifications are1 and 2 dimension barcode marking which generate a light signalrequiring a line of sight between the reader and the barcode. Inaddition, there are some products which include electrical signalgenerators such as radio frequency identification (“RFID”) tags. Anadvantage of RFID tags is that a line of sight is not required betweenthe tag reader and the tag. Accordingly, tags can be hidden, and stillread.

One problem with RFID tags is that, unlike barcodes, they have structure(e.g. antenna, circuitry, substrate) which requires handling and supportrelative to a container which is much more complicated than justprinting a barcode on a container label or directly onto a container.Additionally, plastic containers are thermally formed, or thermallyprocessed after filling. The temperatures at which these thermalprocesses are carried out will often destroy the signal generatingfunctionality of a typical RFID tag.

The invention provides a method for molding a plastic container within amold including an RFID tag to generate a container which leaves a moldhaving an RFID tag bonded between the container and a label. Theinvention also provides for an integrally, extrusion blow moldedcontainer, label and RFID tag combination.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One embodiment of the present invention provides a method for forming aplastic container which is attached to an electrical signal generatorduring and extrusion blow molding process. The method includes a moldhaving at least two portions which are moveable between open and closedpositions, wherein when the portions are in the closed position the molddefines an interior surface. The method further includes attaching anelectrical signal generator to a container label, locating the label andelectrical signal generator in the mold when the portions are in theopen position, extruding a heated parison, closing the mold; andpressurizing the parison to expand the parison into contact with thegenerator, the label and the interior surface to form an outside surfaceof the combination of the container, label and generator which has ashape generated by the shape of the interior surface.

Another embodiment of the present invention provides a combination of aheated mold and a plastic container. The combination includes the heatedmold, a label and an electrical signal generator, compliable with theinterior surface of the mold and located adjacent and located betweenthe container and the label. The container is a parison under pressureand expanded to force the container into contact with the generator,label and interior surface to reshape the parison into a plasticcontainer having a combined shape generated by the internal shape of themold. For most beverage containers this shape includes at least athreaded neck and a vessel portion. Of course, for a food tray, theshape would not typically include a threaded neck.

Another embodiment of the present invention provides for a containerinjection blow molded with an electric generator bonded between theplastic container and a label with a heat activated adhesive which isactivate during the blow molding process.

In other embodiments of the present invention, the label may alsoinclude light generating identifiers such as barcodes, the plasticcontainers may be multi-layer containers having multiple layers ofplastic differing in types, the mold may be actively heated and/orcooled, the parison heated to a temperature which facilitates theair-pressure expansion of the parison, and the RFID tag includes a heatprotective enclosure such as 2 thermally protective sheets of materialsuch as a thermoplastic or ceramic material. Typically the mold would bea two piece mold, but some embodiments may require more complexmulti-piece molds. Additionally, the handling of labels will typicallyrequire pick-and-place vacuum cup robotic equipment designed to placethe labels and tags within an open mold prior to extrusion of therespective parison.

DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings incorporated in and forming a part of thespecification illustrate several aspects of the present invention and,together with the description, serve to explain the principles of theinvention. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a portion of an extrusion blow moldingapparatus used implement embodiments of the present invention and toform embodiments of the container/bottle of present invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged, detailed, partial section view from FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a 2 piece mold, a mold head through whichair is forced to inflate a parison; and

FIG. 4 is an enlarged sectional view of the container wall, label andRFID tag.

While the invention will be described in connection with certainpreferred embodiments, there is no intent to limit it to thoseembodiments. On the contrary, the intent is to cover all alternatives,modifications and equivalents as included within the spirit and scope ofthe invention as defined by the appended claims.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring to FIGS. 1-3, a schematic representation of an injectionmolding system and portions thereof are illustrated. The system includesthree separate extruders 10 each generating a stream of flowable plasticwhich passes through the conduits 12 into the die block 14. (Forpurposes of this disclosure, “plastic” means a thermoplastic unlessreference is specifically made to a thermal-set-plastic i.e. a type ofplastic which is cross-linked during heating/molding.) The streams maybe of the same or different plastics, and the number of streams andconduits may range from 1 to the number of layers which meet thetechnical requirements for a particular container. By way of example,there are some containers that include 2 plastic layers or more. Inparticular, they may have an interior layer and an exterior layer bondedtogether by an adhesive layer there between. For this configuration oneof the extruders 10 would have the plastic material for the interiorlayer EVOH/HDPE or PP, the second would have the Adhesive Resin or HDPEif no Barrier Resin is required for the inner layer, and the third wouldhave the plastic material for the outside layer. In many cases theadhesive may be a plastic having characteristics which allow theadhesive to bond to different plastics which would not effectively bondto each other for purpose of forming a container.

The extruders 10 heat the pellets for the respective plastics to aflowable temperature using mechanical action, and the die block 14 isheated to maintain the appropriate temperature to create a parison 16.In particular, referring to FIG. 2, the composite stream is extrudedthrough an annular orifice 18 of block 14 to form a tubular multilayerstream 20 of plastic to form parison 16.

Referring to FIGS. 1-3, mold 22 includes mold portions 24 and 26. Whileparison 16 is being formed, the mold portions 24 and 26 are in an openposition. While in the open position, a robotic label handler (notshown) places a label 30 including an electronic signal generator suchas an RFID tag 32 into the mold 22 as shown in FIG. 1. In the presentembodiment the label handler would include a vacuum cup which would beactivated to pick individual labels 30 from a stack of labels and thenplace and orient the labels into the open mold 22.

Upon completion of the creation of parison 16, and placement of label 30and tag 32, mold portions 24 and 26 are forced together using a force Fshown in FIG. 1. The joined mold portions 24 and 26 form an interiorsurface 34 which has a shape which generates the shape of a container36. In general, a bottle-type container will include a threaded neckportion 38 and a vessel portion 40. Referring to both FIGS. 1 and 2, gas(typically air) is injected into port 42 which communicates with port 44which resides within parison 16. The gas is injected after mold 22 isclosed to expand the parison 16 to force it into contact with the tag32, the label 30 and the interior surface 34 to form an outside surfaceof the combination of the resulting container 36, label 30 and tag 32which has a shape generated by the shape of the interior surface 34.

Referring again to port 44, as shown in FIG. 2, port 44 cooperates withorifice 18 to form the multilayer stream 20.

Upon completion of the pressurization and molding of the container 36,cutting blocks 46 are moved as shown in FIG. 2 to sever the multilayerstream 20 from the container 36, the mold 22 is opened and the container36 is ejected from the mold 22. The resulting container 36 includes tag32 fixed between label 30 and the outside surface of container 36.Depending upon the opacity of the container 36, container content andlabel 30, tag 32 may not be viewable by a viewer of container 36. Forsome consumer products it is desirable to “hide” RFID labels.

Referring now in more detail to RFID tag 32, one embodiment of the tagwould include an antenna coupled to an integrated circuit (“chip”) withthe antenna and chip being supported by a flexible substrate such as anappropriate ceramic or thermos-set plastic sheet. To provide additionalthermal protection for the antenna and circuit, a second sheet ofappropriate ceramic or thermos-set plastic would be joined to the firstsheet at the perimeters thereof to envelop or enclose the antenna andcircuit to provide a thermally protected tag assembly flexible enough tocomply with the shape of interior surface 34.

Depending upon the application, it may be desirable to bond tag 32 tothe container 36 and/or label 30. This can be accomplished with anappropriate adhesive. In one embodiment, such an adhesive would be aheat activatable adhesive which is activated to provide the desired bondusing the heat/temperature provided during the blow molding process.

Referring to FIG. 4, a sectional view of the molded bottle illustratesthe orientation of the interior bottle layer 48, the exterior bottlelayer 50, the adhesive/plastic layer 52 which bonds the layer 48 to 50.Also illustrated are label 30 and tag 32, and thermally activatedadhesive layers 54 which bond the tag 32 to the label 30 and outersurface of container 36.

Examples of plastic resins which would be used to create the layers ofmultilayer stream 20 include: Generic HDPE, Adhesive, EVOH & PP resins.

Examples of adhesives/plastics which are compatible with and adhere todissimilar plastic layers include: Plexar Adhesive 3236 which bondsdissimilar resins together Example HDPE, EVOH, PP.

Examples of heat activatable adhesives useable with tags such as RFIDtags and label materials such as Yupo films include: Plexar Adhesive3236.

Typical temperature ranges for parison formation include: 380 F-420 F.

Typical temperature ranges at which the molds are operated include: 45F-60 F.

In one embodiment, the tag 32 would be required to reliably generatesignals after being heated to at least 420 F.

In various typical embodiments, container 36 is a plastic. In onepreferred embodiment, container 36 is formed from extruded high densitypolyethylene (HDPE) having an average wall thickness of about 1.0millimeter. In other embodiments, container 36 may be formed from anyextrudable blow-molded material, such as Polypropylene (PP), nylon,Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), and Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), andhaving an average wall thickness of 0.6 to 2.0 millimeters. Dependingupon the material to be contained in container 36, container 36 may bemultilayered with the layers being a combination of one or more of thesematerials and adhesive layers as dictated by material compatibility.

In various embodiments, container 36 may have an effective internalvolume dictated by the size limits of a particular extrusion and blowmolding system. For example, sizes of between 0.1 gallons to 5 gallonsare common, but preferably between about 0.5 gallon and 2.5 gallons. By“effective internal volume” it is meant the nominal storage capacity ofa liquid within container 36 to a fill line that is below the bottleneck opening 38.

All references, including publications, patent applications, and patentscited herein are hereby incorporated by reference to the same extent asif each reference were individually and specifically indicated to beincorporated by reference and were set forth in its entirety herein.

The use of the terms “a” and “an” and “the” and similar referents in thecontext of describing the invention (especially in the context of thefollowing claims) is to be construed to cover both the singular and theplural, unless otherwise indicated herein or clearly contradicted bycontext. The terms “comprising,” “having,” “including,” and “containing”are to be construed as open-ended terms (i.e., meaning “including, butnot limited to,”) unless otherwise noted. Recitation of ranges of valuesherein are merely intended to serve as a shorthand method of referringindividually to each separate value falling within the range, unlessotherwise indicated herein, and each separate value is incorporated intothe specification as if it were individually recited herein. All methodsdescribed herein can be performed in any suitable order unless otherwiseindicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context. The useof any and all examples, or exemplary language (e.g., “such as”)provided herein, is intended merely to better illuminate the inventionand does not pose a limitation on the scope of the invention unlessotherwise claimed. No language in the specification should be construedas indicating any non-claimed element as essential to the practice ofthe invention.

Preferred embodiments of this invention are described herein, includingthe best mode known to the inventors for carrying out the invention.Variations of those preferred embodiments may become apparent to thoseof ordinary skill in the art upon reading the foregoing description. Theinventors expect skilled artisans to employ such variations asappropriate, and the inventors intend for the invention to be practicedotherwise than as specifically described herein. Accordingly, thisinvention includes all modifications and equivalents of the subjectmatter recited in the claims appended hereto as permitted by applicablelaw. Moreover, any combination of the above-described elements in allpossible variations thereof is encompassed by the invention unlessotherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for forming a plastic container which isattached to an electrical signal generator during and extrusion blowmolding process, the method comprising: providing a mold having at leasttwo portions which are moveable between open and closed positions,wherein when the portions are in the closed position the mold defines aninterior surface; attaching an electrical signal generator to acontainer label; supporting the container label with a vacuum cup;moving the vacuum cup to locate the label and electrical signalgenerator in the mold when the portions are in the open position, thegenerator being fabricated from materials to retain its signalgenerating functionality after being heated over 420° F. degrees, thegenerator being fabricated to be compliable with the interior surface ofthe mold and the generator having first and second sides coated with aheat activatable adhesive; extruding a heated parison having at leastone interior layer of plastic material and an outside layer of plasticmaterial, the interior layer defining an interior in communications withan inflation port; closing the mold; and pressurizing the parison toexpand the parison into contact with the generator, the label and theinterior surface to form an outside surface of the combination of thecontainer, label and generator which has a shape generated by the shapeof the interior surface, heat in the mold activating the adhesive tofasten the generator between the outside layer of plastic material andthe label.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step ofcontrolling a temperature of the mold to maintain the temperaturebetween 45° F. and 60° F.
 3. The method of claim 1, where in the step ofextruding the heated parison includes the step of controlling atemperature of the plastic to maintain the temperature of the plasticbetween 380° F. and 420° F.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein thegenerator is an RFID tag.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the RFID tagincludes at least an IC chip coupled to an antenna, the chip and theantenna being enclosed by 2 sheets of material such that the signalgenerating functionality of the RFID tag is maintained after beingheated over 420° F.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the interior layerof plastic material is a barrier layer of EVOH or PP; or if no barrier,the interior layer and the outside layer of plastic material are HDPE.7. The method of claim 6, wherein the heat activatable adhesive is usedto bond dissimilar resins together for the interior layer and a barrier,or if no barrier is required, HDPE is used for each layer.
 8. Amulti-layered plastic container comprising: a neck comprising externalthreads and an orifice extending through the neck and external threads;a vessel comprising inner layer and an outer layer, wherein the innerlayer and outer layer are coupled together with a heat activatedadhesive; a label comprising an electronic signal generator; and a RFIDtag comprising two or more thermally protective sheets and locatedwithin the label, wherein the label is located between the inner layerand outer layer of the vessel.
 9. The plastic container of claim 8,wherein the protective sheets comprise a thermoset or a ceramicmaterial.
 10. The plastic container of claim 8, wherein the RFID tag isoperable and generates signals when heated to at least 420° F.
 11. Theplastic container of claim 8, further comprising a light generatingidentifier.
 12. The plastic container of claim 8, further comprising abarrier layer between the inner layer and the outer layer of the vessel.13. The plastic container of claim 8, wherein the tag is bound to abarrier layer between the inner and outer layer of the container with anadhesive.
 14. The plastic container of claim 13, wherein the adhesive isa heat activated adhesive that generates adhesive properties when atemperature of the adhesive rises during a blow molding process.
 15. Theplastic container of claim 8, further comprising a barrier layer locatedbetween the inner layer and outer layer of the vessel portion, thebarrier layer forming a bond between the inner layer and the outerlayer.
 16. The plastic container of claim 15, wherein the adhesive layercomprises at least one of EVOH, high density polyethylene HDPE,polyvinyl chloride PVC, polyethylene terephthalate PET, or polypropylenePP.
 17. The plastic container of claim 16, wherein the adhesive layercomprises Plexar Adhesive
 3236. 18. An extrusion blow molding system forforming a plastic container, comprising: three or more extruders coupledto an annular orifice; a die-block coupled to the three or moreextruders and forming a multi-layered parison comprising at least threelayers from each of the three or more extruders; a gas injector coupledto an internal cavity of the parison; a mold comprising two or moreportions, wherein two or more portions couple together to form aninterior surface; a vacuum cup that orients an electrical signalgenerator within the mold to orient a heat activated adhesive on theelectrical signal generator that is compliable with the interior surfaceof the mold; a heated parison having an inner layer and an outer layer;wherein the vacuum cup orients and places the electrical signalgenerator into the parison prior to coupling the two or more portions ofthe mold, wherein when the two or more portions of the mold are coupledthe gas injector pressurizes the internal cavity to form a containerwith the electrical signal generator formed between the inner and outerlayers of the parison used to form the container.
 19. The extrusion blowmolding system of claim 18, further comprising an RFID tag comprisingtwo or more thermally protective sheets located within the vacuum cupthat orients the electrical signal generator within the mold.
 20. Theextrusion blow molding system of claim 18, wherein the gas injectorpasses through the die-block to couple the internal cavity of theparison to external air.